Disposable cap



y 1966 1-. F. EPPOLITO 3,249,948

DISPOSABLE CAP Filed July 2, 1964 46 16 /Z g II I 27 /8 /7 INVENTOR lIr/hur A. March ATIORNEY environment.

United I States Patent 3,249,948 DISPOSABLE CAP Tony F. Eppolito, Richmond Hill, N.Y., assignor to Melrose Hospital Uniform Co., Inc., Brooklyn, N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed July 2, 1964, Ser. No. 379,811 1 Claim. (Cl. 2-198) This invention relates to disposable caps for nurses and others who must work in an extremely sanitary environment requiring that the hair be covered.

A standard part of a nurses uniform is a cap which may be made in many ways, but which customarily has a front ipeak portion to give an attractive appearance both for the benefit of the wearer and for the benefit of patients who respond markedly to improvements in their However, the normal nurses oap covers very little of her hair and thus is not suitable for use in operating rooms or other places where it is essential that the utmost cleanliness be maintained.

In addition to hospitals, an extreme degree of cleanliness must be maintained in certain manufacturing establishments in order to prevent any dust at all from reaching the delicate instruments.

The usual head cover provided for totally covering hair has heretofore been drab and without style, serving only the hair covering purpose and not contributing in any way to the appearance of the wearer. Since these head covers must be absolutely clean, they are frequentlymade of extremely inexpensive material, such as paper or inexpensive cloth and are intended to be used only once and then thrown away. Under such conditions, the caps made heretofore have been totally lacking in attractiveness.

In addition, items of "clothing worn in places requiring extreme cleanliness do not have pockets and therefore necessary personal items may not be carried.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a simple, disposable cap which covers all of the hair of the wearer and yet by virtue of its construction is quite attractive in appearance.

Another object is to provide a convenient confined storage place forsmall personal items to be carried by the person wearing the cap of this invention.

Further objects and advantages will become apparent from the following specification, together with the drawings in which:

FIG. lsh-ows a plan view of the cap of this invention;

FIG. 2 shows the cap of FIG. 1 as it would be worn; and

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the cap of FIG. 1 illustrating an internal pocket.

The cap in FIG. 1 may be made of any suitable material, such as cotton or paper, or other material having sufficient strength and being sufficiently inexpensive to allow for disposal after being used only once. The cap has a crown portion 10, the edges of which are folded over at an outer perimeter 12. At the front of the cap the folded over portion 13 is of generally rectangular or quadrilateral configuration, the side edges of which are attached to side portions 14 along two seams 16 which serve to stiffen the quadrilateral portion 13. The quadrilateral portion is folded again at its innermost edge 17 Patented May 10, 1966 so that an extension 18 is tucked underneath, and the two side edges thereof are attached along the seams 16. These seams may be formed by sewing, particularly in the case of a cloth cap, or they may be formed by glue or other suitable means, particularly in the case of paper caps, although the seams may be sewn in paper caps as well.

An elastic band 19 is attached to the inner perimeter of the section 14 from the end of one of the seams 16 to the corresponding end of the other seam. In order to permit this elastic band to be expanded as is required for slipping the cap on, the innermost portion 21 of the sec tion 14 is gathered. This gathering allows the cap to be fitted easily to different head sizes and to allow for a wide variety of hair styling.

The arrangement of the cap in use is indicated in FIG. 2 where, 'as may be seen, the quadrilateral front portion 13 stands up by virtue of the stiffening imparted by the seams 16 at each side. As may be seen, the rear portion of the cap, including the section 14 and the crown, which is not visible in FIG. 2, forms a snood into which all of the hair of the wearer can be tucked.

FIG. 3 shows a cross-sectional view of the cap as it is worn. The front portion 13 is held in a generally upright position by the seams 16 and the extension 18 folded under the outer part 13 forms a pocket in which various items, such as tissues 22 or other personal items, may be placed, which is especially useful in case there is no pocket in the uniform being worn.

While this invention may be modified from the embodiments shown, as those skilled in the art will readily understand, the illustrations do not limit the scope of the invention as defined by the following claim.

What is claimed is:

A cap comprising a crown portion and an integral side portion folded over from the perimeter of the crown; an elastic band attached to a lower edge of part of the 313 portion along the sides and @back thereof; an integral quadrilateral section folded over from the front part of the crown and comprising one portion oontinguous with said crown and an outer portion folded back into the interior of said cap; and seams attaching the sides of said one portion and said outer portion of said quadrilateral section to contiguous edges of the side portion to stiffen said quadrilateral section and to form a pocket with an upwardly facing mouth inside the cap between said outer portion and the inner surface of said one portion.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner.

G. H. KRIZMANICH, Assistant Examiner. 

